By Daniel Bramlett

Have you read the new National Sex Education Standards lately?  Illinois Governor Pritzker signed a monster bill (S.B.818) into reality last year that requires school districts to align their Sex Ed curriculum with these national standards. This bill is praised by the LGBTQ+ community, but many in the state are rejecting it. They say it goes too far. You think? Listen to these summaries found on the National Sex Ed website, advocatesforyouth.org: K-2 will be expected to “Define gender, gender identity and gender-role stereotypes “and “List medically accurate names for body parts, including the genitals.” Really?? Grades 3-5 will be able to “Define and explain differences between cisgender, transgender, gender nonbinary, gender expansive, and gender identity.” (I’m not even sure what some of those are. Third graders do??) They should also be able to “Distinguish between sex assigned at birth and gender identity and explain how they may or may not differ.” Grades 6-8 will be able to “Define vaginal, oral, and anal sex.” Grades 9-10 should “Describe effective ways to communicate consent, personal boundaries, and desires as they relate to intimacy, pleasure and sexual behavior.” And grades 11-12 will be expected to “Advocate for school and community policies and programs that promote dignity and respect for people of all genders, gender expressions, and gender identities.” We think this is off the rails, as do the vast majority of districts in Illinois. But the groups driving this show are just getting started.

Some of you reading this will say, “Kids will be kids. We can’t legislate puberty.” My response is this bill is legislating morality. It slaps the traditional, biblical family in the face and works to train up an army of multi-gender advocates. Some of you are angry that I wrote the words “anal sex” in this article. You say, “A kid might pick this up. What will he think.” To that reader I would ask that you pick up your child’s phone or look into their web browsing history for the last week. The ads alone are enough to send you over the edge. The content on apps like TikTok and YouTube are regularly R-rated and often border on worse. The word “anal” is the softest word some kids have heard all week. To those who say, “That’s Illinois, this is Arkansas,” I’d respond that the world today is tighter and more responsive than ever. Cultural shockwaves reach around the world in hours. I can promise you there is a group in every state lobbying for laws like Illinois’s. They may not get it this year, but they will keep trying. History tells us they will eventually win.

Culture does not spiral upward. The world has been in a downward moral spiral since its inception. We’ve had bright moments for sure, but overall, we can expect things to slide from bad to worse. That’s why the Church is SO VITAL. The message we speak is not our own. It never has been. We read from the only source of 100% truth that’s ever been available. And we are constantly engaged in a fire fight with an enemy who wants to sexualize our kids by the time they’re 10. Girl’s fashion gets more adult-like by the day. Mainstream media grows more and more brazen in every area, including exposure to sex. The fact that Kindergartners in Illinois are able to define gender identity and 10th graders know what a pleasurable sexual experience is all about should clue us in. Students in California have been exposed to this kind of teaching for a couple of decades. The state allows for parents to opt out of the sex-ed classes, but prevents them from excluding their kids from conversations about gender identity and sexual expression. It also prohibits abstinence-only education.

We can fold our arms and say, “What is this world coming to?” If we do that, we will isolate our kids who are already being bombarded with questions and arguments they have no idea how to answer. We can ignore the culture and let the kids figure these things out on their own. Or we can engage. Engagement does not look like us hating change or changers. It doesn’t look like us being angry or turning our kids into monks and nuns. It does require us to do our homework. That doesn’t mean we need to know every single new development in the LGBTQ agenda. It does mean we MUST be absolutely confident and clear on God’s design for our bodies and His intentions for their use. We must talk about marriage and child-bearing. Vows must begin to matter. We need to model healthy marriage relationships and be open with our kids about our struggles. I am convinced this is the lynch pin that will keep our kids’ faith together or cause it to collapse. Their understanding of God’s design in this cultural blender of sex-ed is key. Will you be the one to tell them the truth?